DRIVING THE DAY: MITT TRIES TO UNDO 'ROMNEYCARE'— Don't expect presidential contender Mitt Romney to spend much time, if any, talking about Massachusetts or the individual mandate during his much-anticipated Michigan speech this afternoon. Instead, PULSE bets we'll be hearing a whole lot about his plans to promote state-based programs for the poor and uninsured, tax deductions as an alternative to employer-sponsored health coverage, guaranteed coverage to people with pre-existing conditions who have had insurance for a certain amount of time, tort reform and more incentives for people to get health savings accounts. Romney outlined his approach to health reform in a Wednesday USA Today op-ed, which mentions neither an individual mandate nor does it get into the Massachusetts reform he signed in 2006. The speech gets rolling at 2 p.m. The POLITICO Pro story http://politico.pro/kIOkkN USA Today op-ed http://usat.ly/juLWq4

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--WSJ SLAMS ROMNEY— The WSJ editorial page is just about as rough on Romney as it has been on the president and Secretary Sebelius. “As everyone knows, the health reform Mr. Romney passed in 2006 as Massachusetts governor was the prototype for President Obama's version and gave national health care a huge political boost. Mr. Romney now claims Obamacare should be repealed, but his failure to explain his own role or admit any errors suggests serious flaws both in his candidacy and as a potential president.” The editorial http://on.wsj.com/jtWQkW

FIRST IN PULSE: PROTECT YOUR CARE MAKES FIRST AD BUY— The pro-health reform group Protect Your Care plans to make its first ad buy today, running Google ads against terms like "Romney's health plan" that link back to the group's website describing the Massachusetts reform law as "a foundation for the nation." The ads will show up in Michigan, New Hampshire and D.C. and will stay live for the next two days – longer if people keep searching for the speech. Protect Your Care site on Massachusetts http://bit.ly/l2zKar

HAPPENING TODAY: MOE GOES TO E&C HEALTH— The subcommittee is expected to pass the Medicaid maintenance of effort repeal bill Thursday, but the real action will be focused on containing the bill in the Senate. Medicaid advocates are lobbying for as few House Democratic defections as possible to try to block passage in the Senate. They fear Republicans could successfully attach the bill to a must-pass measure, such as the debt limit. “There’s a real solid concern among [Senate] Democrats that they could lose this vote,” a health lobbyist tells PULSE. The POLITICO Pro story http://politico.pro/iPUdV8

HAPPENING TODAY— President Obama meets with the Senate Republican Caucus … The Ways and Means health subcommittee has a hearing on the Sustainable Growth Rate at 2 p.m. … Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) are expected to announce the formation of the bipartisan Congressional Affordable Medicines Caucus at 10:45 a.m.

** A message from Pfizer Helpful Answers: Pfizer Helpful Answers is a family of patient assistance programs that helps eligible Americans without prescription coverage get Pfizer medicines for free or at a savings. www.PfizerHelpfulAnswers.com **

NEWT'S SLIGHT DISTANCE FROM PAUL RYAN— His health care plan on his brand-new presidential campaign website calls for a Medicare premium support plan something like Paul Ryan's. But it's taken down a notch: unlike the Ryan plan, Gingrich's version would be voluntary. It calls for "giving seniors the option to choose, on a voluntary basis, a more personal system in the private sector with greater options for better care. This would create price competition to lower costs." That's how former GOP Sen. Pete Domenici and former OMB director Alice Rivlin structured it in their bipartisan deficit plan – seniors would still have the choice of the old system. http://bit.ly/j9QUec

CALIFORNIA RATE REVIEW: A CONSUMER WATCHDOG PAYOUT?— Consumer Watchdog says it wants to see rate review legislation pass in California because it will increase regulators’ power to crack down on double-digit premium hikes in the Golden State. But health insurance industry sources contend that Consumer Watchdog has another, less publicized interest in the legislation: They stand to gain millions from it. The legislation in question, H.B. 52, would have insurance companies footing the bill for legal fees incurred by groups like Consumer Watchdog representing consumers in rate hearings. Under a similar California provision for property and auto insurance, Consumer Watchdog has recouped approximately $7 million in legal fees since 2003. The POLITICO Pro story http://politico.pro/lWPMRy MOST SENATE R’s SIGN AMICUS IN MULTISTATE SUIT— Forty-four Senate Republicans are urging the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a federal judge’s ruling that the law is unconstitutional. Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama did not sign on. Graham’s spokesman tells PULSE that he’s focused on the legislative efforts to repeal the law. Speaker Boehner filed a brief, also, but it was not available late Wednesday. The Senate brief http://politico.pro/kEZxom

THE OUT-GROUPS— An overwhelming majority of medical groups will steer clear of the ACO program without substantial changes to the regulation, the American Medical Group Association declared Wednesday. In a letter to CMS Administrator Don Berwick, the group reported that a survey of its members found that 93 percent would not enroll as an ACO as the rule is currently written. The POLITICO Pro story http://politico.pro/iKuQE4

BAD PRESS, DOCUMENTED— The American Journal of Preventive Medicine has done a study on the hullabaloo that followed the November 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on mammograms. The recommendations said that mammograms every other year were sufficient for most women age 40-49. The news did not go over well. AJPM looked at the press coverage and found that the majority of articles and blog posts – 51.9 percent – were negative; 17.6 percent of the coverage did support the recs. In addition to a survey of the news coverage, the study asked 1,221 women in a telephone survey if they knew what the new recommendations were. Less than a quarter did. The study http://bit.ly/iD2G3N

LILLY VP: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS MUST STAY STRONG— Harrison Cook, Eli Lilly’s VP for International Government Affairs, writes on Lilly’s blog about the importance of strong pharmaceutical intellectual property standards in trade agreements to keep the U.S. competitive. “Lower pharmaceutical IPR standards in other markets allow foreign competitors to free ride on U.S. innovation,” he writes. The post http://bit.ly/jpMd9u

WHAT WE’RE READING

The WaPo’s E.J. Dionne Jr. asks readers, as they watch the health lawsuits’ progress to “consider that what you are really seeing is a great republic tying itself into as many knots as possible to avoid facing up to a challenge that every other wealthy capitalist democracy in the world has met.” The column http://wapo.st/lOQMvY

Like the WSJ, the WaPo’s Ezra Klein isn’t a huge fan of Romney’s health plan, either. He blasts it for being short on details. http://wapo.st/lnm9lg

More than 15,000 Aetna customers could see their health premiums drop between 5 and 19.5 percent later this year, partially reflected by new health law requirements, the Connecticut Mirror reports. http://bit.ly/kteuLZ

Medtronic named GE health veteran Omar Ishrak as its new chairman and CEO, the WSJ reports. The story http://on.wsj.com/mvpEUu (Subscription required)

** A message from Pfizer Helpful Answers: Pfizer Helpful Answers is a family of patient assistance programs for the uninsured and underinsured who need help getting Pfizer medicines. These programs provide Pfizer medicines for free or at a savings to patients who qualify. Some programs also offer reimbursement support services for people with insurance. More than 100 Pfizer medicines are offered, including those most widely prescribed, making this program the most comprehensive offering of its kind. In the last five years (2006-2010), Pfizer Helpful Answers helped nearly 4.5 million uninsured and underinsured patients get access to more than 44 million Pfizer prescriptions, equaling more than $5.6 billion.

Pfizer Helpful Answers is a joint program of Pfizer Inc and the Pfizer Patient Assistance Foundation™.

**A message from The John A. Hartford Foundation: There are many ways to improve health care so older adults can continue to contribute to our communities and society. American ingenuity can replace ineffective, inefficient practices with new and better ways of delivering care.

Today’s health systems don’t always have immediate access to current best practices for meeting the unique needs of older adults. The John A. Hartford Foundation is addressing this challenge and has committed to making 20 percent of U.S. hospitals age-friendly by 2020. By consistently modeling and replicating evidence-based practices in health systems across the country, we can reliably deliver better care to older adults in every setting—resulting in less harm, better outcomes, satisfied patients, and lower overall costs.

The John A. Hartford Foundation is your resource for improving policy and practice that promotes cost-effective, age-friendly health systems. Learn about our areas of expertise at johnahartford.org/improvingcare. **

About The Author

Jennifer Haberkorn is a senior health care reporter for POLITICO Pro. She’s covered health care policy and politics since Congress crafted the Affordable Care Act in 2009. Since then, she has written about the health care law from Capitol Hill, the federal agencies, the courts and outside the Beltway. Haberkorn has also written extensively on reproductive health policy, Medicare and Medicaid.

She has discussed health care news on several other media outlets, including CNN, the BBC, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Fox News and NPR.

Before arriving at POLITICO in 2010, she covered Congress and local business news for The Washington Times. Haberkorn is a graduate of Marquette University.

About The Author

Before coming to POLITICO, Nocera was a reporter for the New York Daily News. She has covered murders, fires, state and city politicians, snowstorms, building collapses, plane crashes, defunct city agencies and angry neighbors.

Nocera received her bachelor's in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2007, but despite her best efforts to avoid a career as a reporter, fell in love with journalism her senior year. She ended up with a master's in journalism from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2009 with a specialization in urban reporting. She grew up in Northampton, Mass., but is a New Yorker at heart.